Tuesday New Release Day

Related Books:

Laura Miller of SalonrecommendsTana French’s new crime-fiction novel Faithful Place: “makes Philip Marlowe’s L.A. look like a church picnic. French herself doesn’t play by the rules…” Also out recently is a new edition of James Salter’s short story collection Dusk and Other Stories, with a new introduction by former Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch.

Ujala Sehgal
is an associate editor for The Millions. She works for the New York Civil Liberties Union, the NY Chapter of the ACLU. She was formerly a writer for The Atlantic's news website The Wire, and a co-editor of NY media blog FishbowlNY. Her writing has appeared in The Millions, TheAtlantic.com, Newsday, National Journal, The Rumpus, and elsewhere, and is partly collected at her website, TheCivilWriter.com. Follow @ujalasehgal.

Laila Lalami recently wrote about "How History Becomes Story," but writing an interesting and compelling history book sans fiction has its own challenges. Thankfully S.C. Gwynneoffers some tips in a piece for the History News Network, including the hard-hitting reminder that "it is your job to force your facts into narrative form."

We care quite a bit about book covers here at The Millions, hence our recentrounds of cover-judging. To honor the hundredth anniversary of Tolstoy's death, Flavorwirehas compiled a selection of Anna Karenina's many covers, and opportunities for judgement abound.

The Missouri Reviewinterview with Jessa Crispin, founder of Bookslut. If you've yet to stumble upon the decade old literary blog, you might want to start with this recent post from Kevin Frazier on Edith Wharton and Julian Barnes. Or this treat from the archives about Monica McFawn Robinson trying to construct an undergraduate course syllabus on love.

After the death of Harold Ramis, it seems only fitting to readEsquire's oral history of Ghostbusters. Dan Aykroyd initially wanted it to be an intergalactic drama, yet he and others were happy with how it turned out. "People in the paranormal field loved it. It gave focus to their work," Aykroyd said.

When Hanna Rosin published The End of Men this year, the book stirred up a lot of controversy (and a number of parodies, to boot). Now Stephanie Coontz, a historian, takes issue with Rosin’s premise -- the “myth of male decline” -- in the pages of The New York Times Book Review.